Raja Ampat in Indonesia

10 July 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Raja Ampat Islands © Wibowo Djatmiko/cc-by-sa-3.0

Raja Ampat Islands © Wibowo Djatmiko/cc-by-sa-3.0

Raja Ampat Regency is a regency of West Papua province of Indonesia. The regency, which was formed based on the Law 26 of 2002, was inaugurated on 12 April 2003, and consists of a number of groups of islands situated off the northwest end of West Papua; the four main islands are Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo. At present, the regency covers a land area of 8,034.44 sq.km, and had a population of 43,000 at the 2010 Census; the latest official estimate (as at January 2014) is 49,000. The principal town lies at Waisai.   read more…

The Coral Triangle in the Pacific Ocean

17 December 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Christmas tree worms © Nick Hobgood/cc-by-sa-3.0

Christmas tree worms © Nick Hobgood/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Coral Triangle is a geographical term so named as it refers to a roughly triangular area of the tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste that contain at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. This region encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region, and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region. The Coral Triangle is recognized as the global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. It also called the “Amazon of the seas” and covers 5.7 million square kilometers of ocean waters. Its biological resources sustain the lives of over 120 million people. According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network, about $3 billion in fisheries exports and another $3 billion in coastal tourism revenues are derived as annual foreign exchange income in the region.   read more…

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